Tank and other tales of animals at peril...and remaking "Arthur"?

This dog, saved from an animal cruelty situation after he was left to starve on a Bedford, Texas, apartment balcony, may wind up just as dead. Just as dead.

You may recall Tank. He and a little fluffy dog, Misty, had been abandoned there and were starving. Animal control and police intervened.
Misty found a home – but she’s little and cute.
Tank, who initially displayed some unpleasant reactions to strangers (and everyone was a stranger), has settled down and is learning to be a good, social dog, according to Jennifer Bond, the Bedford police investigator who has taken an interest in Tank and Tank’s case.
The woman accused of animal cruelty in this abandonment case, Brittany Brown, is scheduled to go on trial tomorrow, but sometimes the wheels of justice don’t move on time. We’ll monitor.
As for Tank, Investigator Bond reports that “he has made an incredible recovery in so many ways.....Tank is living proof that animals can be rehabilitated.”
He also has been in the Bedford shelter for more than 3 months and needs to leave. Animal Behaviorist Dawn Orr has been working with him and he’s catching on to the ways of a loved dog.
He simply needs someone to take him – a rescue group with a good foster, perhaps. Or a solid adoptor. The Bedford shelter is at 1809 Reliance Parkway. Call 817-952-2191. Contact Investigator Bond at [email protected] or call 817-952-2427. She has been trying for some time to find a rescue group or a person to take Tank.
If Tank doesn’t find a home soon, after all the work that went into training him and preparing the cruelty case, he will be killed just as dead as if he’d been left alone on that balcony. Dead is dead. And the stain will be on the hands of not just the accused who set Tank on this fatal path, but on the hands of everyone who had a chance to help and didn’t.
Won’t Tank wonder what in the world is going on when the people who have always been so nice shove that needle in and the light starts to go out? “I thought you were helping me,” he may think, and then he’ll go on to eternity, betrayed by humans. Yeah, we all ought to be proud.
THE RESCUE: On Tuesday, while most of the rest of us were doing something else, a team of veterans from Take Me Home Pet Rescue managed to get a momma dog and her puppies out of the shrubbery and into custody.
We get the story from Rekka Melby. She says Take Me Home rescue was contacted by “a good Samaritan named Susie Araiza” about a stray who’d given birth over the weekend under a bush at the Cliff Manor housing facility in North Oak Cliff.
The report was that Susie’s husband shops at a hardware store nearby and had seen the pregnant dog hanging around, then Susie and her husband tracked the dog down to the Cliff Manor shrubbery and saw that mom had delivered the puppies and was hiding them under the bushes. Susie wanted to get the dogs out of harm’s way. So, she got in touch with Take me Home Pet Rescue (Rekka says she tracked the group down via stories we’ve run about rescue efforts on Readlarrypowell.com. Good to know people read and make the connection.)
There was one solid key ingredient in this particular rescue effort. Rekka says, “It should be noted that J-P Bonnelly and TMHPR get numerous requests for help with stray dogs but the reason we were able to spring into action so quickly was because Susie offered to foster, so since we had a place for them to go, J-P and I went out there last night to catch the little family!”
They didn’t really have to chase the puppies – as you can tell from that tender photo of the tiny newborn being cradled by the hands of Jean-Paul Bonnelly.
Rekka writes, “When we first arrived on the scene we found momma and crew tucked up under the bushes. J-P tried looping her with the leash but she got scared and took off.  We then placed a few of her puppies in a trap, along with some chicken strips to try and lure her in. When she came back she was happy to see a guy named Gabriel that lives at the shelter. [That’s Gabriel on the cart with Mom behind.]  She came up to him wagging her tail and even rolled over for a belly rub.  This was the first time she let him pet her so that was great. 
“She then went and rolled around in the grass for a bit and decided to lay down and wait us out. 
“Then another resident named Gary decided to give it a try so walked up to her and he was also able to pet her and she rolled over for another belly rub! 
“J-P was working on getting a leash to Gary so he could loop it around her neck but the next thing we knew Gary grabbed her legs and was picking her up!  So J-P rushed in and was able to get the leash around her neck. She was spooked so tried to get away but J-P held onto her, whew!  It was a great team effort. 
“Side note, rarely does this happen where a scared dog will suddenly let people pet her for the first time while we're out there trying to catch the dog. ... She was pretty overwhelmed last night but we know she'll come around and make a great family pet.
 “Momma dog is super cute and so are the puppies, four boys and four girls.  We're worried about a few of them but hopefully they'll pull through. This was a very rewarding rescue...we met so many nice folks at [Cliff Manor] that came out to express their past concern and now gratitude that we were getting the little family to safety. 
“Apparently someone had posted a sign saying they were going to fine people $25 for feeding her and animal control was also called but was unable to catch her.  I wish we would have had someone there to film these folks as several talked about how even though they didn't have much for themselves, God put them on this planet along with all living creatures and they couldn't walk past an animal in need without doing something to help. 
“We learned that momma dog has been hanging around there for 4 months and has had several guardian angels looking after her and bringing her food.  These folks are going through hard times but scraped up money to feed this beautiful momma dog.  It was kind of bittersweet as they talked about how they were happy she's safe now but that they're really going to miss having her around.”
The plan is to bring Mom and some pups back in six weeks for a visit.
Rekka says that Take Me Home Pet Rescue “is overloaded with puppies. ... We'll have several available for adoption very soon!  Just last week we took in a six-pack of female Heeler/Shepherd mixes that were abandoned on the side of a country road.  In January we pulled a pregnant chi-weenie from Garland and her six-pack of pups were born Feb 7 so they'll also be ready for homes soon.  As you can guess with all these puppies we desperately need more fosters as well as financial help.”
Donations can be made HERE,  You can get more info about the group by clicking HERE.
And you can see video from last night’s rescue HERE.
ON THE CLOCK IN DALLAS: The Dallas Animal Services euthanasia list for March 29 includes a cat and 13 dogs.
One of those dogs is this sweet-faced mutt, Bentley.
The 14 animals on the list have all been at the shelter for 45 days or longer without drawing any interest at all.
To adopt or for more information e-mail  [email protected] or [email protected] or call 214-671-0249 or 214-670-8312. Rescue groups should contact [email protected] or [email protected] or call 214-670-8298.
The shelter is at I-30 at Westmoreland, just a few minutes west of downtown Dllas.
AND IN CARROLLTON: Last night Carrollton Animal Shelter’s Senior Animal Care Specialist Joe Skenesky sent out a note reading that all the animals on this week’s “list” are “safe, adopted or rescued, so no EU this week.” No euthanasia this week in Carrollton.
 Archie the Cat with the great whiskers and the sweet pit Tootsie both went into rescue, Joe reports.
CONTEMPLATIONS: Drove up to Texarkana yesterday to see Mom. Long ride on a lousy highway with stretches of construction work. Once you start getting off the prairie and into the trees, you see great flowering dogwoods, green leaves emerging and wisteria running all over the place. Just beautiful. ... Holy smoke. Elizabeth Taylor has died. Yep, she was a star and she was dynamic in the only movie that ever gave me a headache, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” Swear. The longer that argument on film went, the more intense my headache got. That was in 1966. Still can’t watch the film.  .. Speaking of films, the great Dudley Moore’s great comedy Arthur has been remade with Russell Brand in the title role. Why? Why?  When I saw the Americanized version of the British film Death at a Funeral I realized filmmakers were desperate, but this Arthur remake is almost as much of an insult as the United Artist theater in Grand Prairie charging $7 for small popcorn.
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